Good on You

I’ve been walking along this path for the last couple of weeks, usually on my way to school which leaves me little time to wander. It’s about 2 minutes from where I live, practically in my backyard. Last weekend I went for a walk and decided to do a little exploring when I saw this guy walking briskly into the trees with a backpack. I hadn’t thought that there could be hiking trails through there, I guess because it’s just sort of in the middle of the city next to the highway and there’s nothing to indicate any trails. Here’s what I found in there:

I was able to take a little trip down to Auckland last Sunday for the jazz and blues festival that was happening down at Mission Bay which is a cute area of town with lots of shops and restaurants near the beach. The beach was great and the music was pretty good. Tracey and I settled on hanging out at the stage that was actually on the beach so we could relax in the sand with a beautiful view of the full moon. All of this was wonderful until a band got up on the stage and began a jazzed up poppy rendition of Nirvana’s Come As You Are that, seriously made me embarrassed to be listening to it. Can anyone even conceive of how that could sound good? Also weirdly, there were loads of teenagers there. Not just any teenagers, teen girls dressed like they stepped right out of my teenage closet. Is this happening everywhere? I heard the 80’s were coming back but I’d never seen it on this scale. Brightly colored combat boots, big bows in big hair, fringe purses, high top shoes, short cut off jean shorts with flash dance off the shoulder tops, and of course some Lucky Star Madonna outfits. What????? I tried to get some photos but teen girls are like wild animals or something. They are never separated from the pack. Anyway, here are some pics of Mission Bay:

Oh, I haven’t mentioned a new Kiwi word for this post yet so I’ll go with an often heard phrase around here. “Good on you” pretty much means: good for you but I think it can replace things like that’s great or good job or go for it.

Something that amuses me on almost a daily basis is my inability to understand what the heck these Kiwis are saying sometimes. It’s funny how an accent can make certain words indecipherable. I tried to order some food today and I didn’t understand a word the guy was saying to me. You know you always get a second chance when you pretend you didn’t hear them the first time, but once that happens then I just have to stare at them for a minute while my brain tries to fill in the blanks and they probably wonder if I even speak English because I’ve probably got some bewildered look on my face.  The worst is people from other countries that have been here a long time and have layered a Kiwi accent over oh let’s say some Eastern European type accent (the guy from today). Impossible!!!

Well that’s it for now and good on you mates!!